AlZilla

Wayne, Oh yeah, I could see just what you were doing to hold it down. Starting in the middle is a good point, though. I think it'd be easy enough to tip the blade if you wanted a more traditional skive, too. Most ingenious.

As I was reading your post, I was thinking "Yeah, but how are going to hold it taught?" Cool solution. Thanks!

I struggled a bit with where to put this one. On another forum there's a post about a genuine Al Stolhman holster. Carved in his familiar floral style and sporting his makers stamp. I don't know if these are common, uncommon or what, but it's the first one I've seen. Maybe others will find it interesting, too. https://smith-wessonforum.com/gun-leather-carry-gear/724748-al-stohlman-holster.html?posted=1#post142025031

Only 6? Pretty high level work for a "rookie" ... !

How would one make shoes with more supportive insoles? I'd LOVE to be able to make my own shoes but I need a Nike-like insole. I recently wore some boat shoes or something for a few days and my low back went to crap for a month. It still aches.

Here's an extensive page dedicated to Tornister bags. Maybe it'll inspire someone. I like the leather/canvas combo. https://www.militariacollectors.network/forums/topic/5377-the-german-tornister-backpack/

I see it. The provided link here 404's on me but if I enter it manually, it works. So, past all that, it's very strange how it seems to sew in circles.

That's a spammer.

I'd suggest making a video of the problem, maybe the machine sewing where it's not feeding, and post it to youtube. Then post a link here so people can see what's going on. It's just hard to visualize what you're talking about.

But I bet they'd like to know if their brand name is being pirated. Searching for "Coats Industrial Thread" turns up nothing that looks like yours. The blue dot with the chain is something they use, but I don't see any like yours. Interesting. EDIT: A search for "Coats Star Nylon" turns up 1 junk seller on ebay with some. Nothing that looks like a reputable thread dealer.

Actually, I think the whole body is cut from 1 piece of leather. Then the 4 corners are sewn up. Look at the next to last picture and zoom in on the bottom. It almost looks like a seam going at an angle from left front (as you're looking at it) and going towards the right rear, but I think that's an illusion. Imagine laying a piece of paper out and cutting a square from each corner so you can fold it up in to a box shape. I think that's all that's going on here.

Looks a lot like a short duffel bag.

Congratulations on the new machine! Is it ready to sew or a fixer upper?

I've noticed the hand stitching he does before and like it a lot. If you're going to hand stitch, it might as well be different than machine stitching.

I appreciate knowing that. I've struggled with Hobby Lobby level snaps and wondered about better snaps.

Nice work. Myself, I can't get a dye job with varying shades where it doesn't look like I just spilled the dye bottle.

Hmmm.... Will standard snap setting tools a person already has work with these, or will they require the pricey tools listed with them?

I really like these holsters. It took me a while to realize the curved top mimics a trigger cutout. The conchos are very classy. I may try my hand at one.

Wow. The girl has a really deft hand with the paintbrush and a good eye for color. Blowing the pics up shows quite a lot of precision work. The guy she hired to do the knife work and tooling is pretty fair, too ...

I think, as a general rule, anything with multiple stitch types is not going to be suitable for your intended use. The exception might be a Sailrite machine. Not to say a "straight stitch only" machine is necessarily going to work for you. There are tons of older domestic straight stitchers out there that won't. You want an industrial walking foot, ideally. By all means, keep asking. There could be multi-stitch machines out there that would work. I'm not a walking encyclopedia of sewing machines like some of these guys. Most of us have been where you are.

Amazing feat.

I get that these things have a following. But I just can't make myself buy something when the seller and I both understand that it doesn't work.

I'm going to kind of pile on to @Wyowally's answer. I have one of those great old Supermatics. You could probably manage some light upholstery work if you limit it to #69 thread. I wouldn't want to punch much leather with it, though.

If you can find out what the actual bobbin tension is supposed to be, this cheap scale here will help you ballpark it: https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Postage-Kitchen-Mechanical-AMWHAND-BLK/dp/B003STEJ8O/ I'll attach the actual pic so that when that listing goes away, this post will still have relevance. On domestics, about an ounce of bobbin tension gets me in the range and it's worlds better than guessing. If a person wanted to spend a LOT more money, actual purpose built bobbin tension gauges are out there. For our purposes, this little one works fine. It's a little fiddly, but who cares?

Tubes might be expensive overkill and maybe the sheer mass of the tube might draw moisture if your humidity got too high. The cardboard itself doesn't seem to pose a problem. Here's an article more applicable to commercial storage but I think we can draw from it. Most of us probably don't need industrial steel racks: https://www.worldofleathers.com/leather-care/how-to-store-leather-correctly-leather-storage-complete-guide/